Kevin Costner's 'Black and White' to Anchor Austin Film Festival

The Austin Film Festival has announced its preliminary slate of films for this year's edition of the festival. Mike Binder's "Black and White," which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, will be featured as the festival's centerpiece film. Other notable titles include the world premiere of the highly-anticipated documentary "21 Years: Richard Linklater," the Tommy Lee Jones-directed frontier drama "The Homesman" and James Franco's "The Sound and the Fury."

For the full list of films announced so far, as well as the talent that is currently confirmed to be in attendance, see below. The 21st Annual Austin Film Festival will take place October 23-30.

"Black and White" - CENTERPIECE FILM Writer/Director: Mike Binder (In attendance) Cast in attendance: Jillian Estell Starring Academy Award-winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, Black and White is the story of a widowed grandfather (Costner) who is left to raise his bi-racial granddaughter. When the little girl’s paternal grandmother (Spencer) seeks custody, a bitter legal battle ensues that forces the uneasy family members to have an honest conversation about life, death, anger and America’s racial divide. Also starring Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Ehle, Gillian Jacobs, Bill Burr, Andre Holland, and introducing Jillian Estell.

A psychiatrist haunted by the death of a former patient stumbles upon a Doomsday cult and battles to save a teenage girl (Cobham-Hervey) from its clutches.

"The Homesman" - Texas Premiere Writer: Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley A. Oliver, Kieran Fitzgerald Director: Tommy Lee Jones When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven to the brink, the task of saving them from their surroundings falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a feisty low-life drifter, George Biggs (Tommy Lee Jones), to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife (Meryl Streep) have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.

"The Imitation Game" - Texas Premiere Writer: Graham Moore Director: Morten Tyldum Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was prosecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts which the country deemed illegal.

"The Sound and the Fury" - Texas Premiere Writer: Matt Rager, William Faulkner (Novel) Director: James Franco Directed by and starring Academy Award® nominee James Franco, The Sound and The Fury captures the lives and passions of the Compsons, a once proud Southern family caught in a tragic spiral of loss and misfortune. Based on the novel by Noble Prize winner author William Faulkner and considered among the 20th century’s greatest works, The Sound and the Fury encapsulates the universal theme of the death of honor, social injustice and forbidden love.

"The Texas Promise" - World Premiere Director: Vanessa Roth (In attendance) From Academy-Award ® winning documentarian, Vanessa Roth, The Texas Promise is the gripping story of equity, politics, money, and our children as historic decisions are being made about opportunity, the economy, and our democracy. When the Texas legislature cut $5.4 billion from public schools, it affected the daily lives of the 5 million students in Texas public schools and made Texas 49th in the country in per pupil spending. Texans took to the streets in protest, districts from across Texas sued the state, and ideological battle lines were drawn in Austin.